Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Restore a lost Switch between windows shortcut in Vista

Switch between windowsHave you lost your shortcut or icon for Switch between windows (Window Switcher, Flip3D)? Is it missing this Vista Aero feature from your Quick Launch toolbar even though the keyboard shortcuts are still working?

  • Picture of the Windows logo keyWindows Logo+Tab (press Tab for next window or hold Tab down to quickly scroll for the next windows.)
  • Shift+Picture of the Windows logo keyWindows Logo+Tab (press Tab for previous window or hold Tab down to quickly scroll for the next windows)
  • Ctrl+Picture of the Windows logo keyWindows Logo+Tab (to stay in Windows Flip 3D mode. You can also press RIGHT ARROW or DOWN ARROW to cycle forward one window, or press LEFT ARROW or UP ARROW to cycle backward one window.) Press ENTER to activate the window or ESC to close Flip 3D.
  • At any time use the mouse and click on a window to activate it.

Windows Flip 3D

Here is how the button Picture of the Switch between windows button on the taskbar can be restored after accidentally have been deleted or misplaced.

  • Create a new shortcut by for example right clicking on the desktop and select New>Shortcut.
  • When asked "What item would you like to create a shortcut for?" copy the row below and paste it to the text box.
  • %SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe dwmapi #105 Create Shortcut
  • Click on Next.
  • Enter the name for the shortcut. For example: "Switch between windows".
  • Click on Finish.
  • Right click on the new shortcut and select Properties.
  • Click on the Change Icon button. Change Icon
  • Change rundll32.exe to imageres.dll and press OK. (The location is usually at %SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll or search for the file imageres.dll in the folder %SystemRoot% or C:\Windows and its subfolders. On Windows Vista 64-bit the location is C:\Windows\SysWOW64\rundll32.exe DwmApi #105) Change Icon
  • The correct icon should now be in the list. Click on it and press OK.
  • Now you can drag and drop the shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar.
  • The shortcut Switch between windows is now recovered. Problem solved.

3 comments:

  1. Restored comments
    Anonymous said...

    Thank you!!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH! this was so useful! Someone was on my computer and totally changed everything on my desktop and quick launch!!
    December 21, 2007

    Anonymous said...

    Thank you very much. I accidently lost the icon for changing between windows and it had to press Alt + TAB if I wanted to change them. Now I have got the icon back and I know a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + Windows Logo + Tab). Thanks!
    January 13, 2008

    Anonymous said...

    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I TRIED FOR WEEKS TO RECOVER THIS IT NEVER HAPPENED TIL I STUMBLED ON THIS SITE AGAIN THANK YOU SOOO MUCh!!!!!
    June 08, 2008

    Anonymous said...

    Awesome thanks - new to a laptop and shortcut keys are becoming my mainstay of navigation - this one eluded me. Thanks again.
    July 17, 2008

    ReplyDelete

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